BUSINESS CYCLE INDICATORS: Assorted economic statistics that provide valuable information about the expansions and contractions of business cycles. These statistics are grouped into three sets--lagging, coincident, and leading. Leading economic indicators tend to move up or down a few months BEFORE business-cycle expansions and contractions. Coincident economic indicators tend to reach their peaks and troughs AT THE SAME TIME as business cycles. Lagging economic indicators tend to rise or fall a few months AFTER business-cycle expansions and contractions.

     See also | leading economic indicators | coincident economic indicators | lagging economic indicators | business cycles | business cycle phases | potential real gross domestic product | full employment | expansion | contraction | peak | trough | investment business cycles | political business cycles | demand-driven business cycles | supply-driven business cycles |

BUSINESS CYCLE INDICATORS, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2025. [Accessed: July 8, 2025].

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The early phase of a business-cycle expansion that occurs shortly after a contraction has ended. During a recovery, the unemployment rate remains relatively high, but is beginning to fall, and real gross domestic product begins to increase, usually rapidly. However, because the contraction remains fresh in the minds of many, it may not be immediately clear that the trough of the contraction has actually ended.

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